Tried a tunnel run a few times, twice with stuff in my cargo hold. first time I got blown up, the second time I barely escaped because I used the tunnels and a blind spot in the flight pattern to get out, but I think I have a plan that will at very least give me the least likely chance of losing a load of money at once. I can stave off interdictions, especially in a type 6, it's getting attacked at the tunnels (not to mention the ace combat flashbacks) I have to worry about, so I'm going to hit my 4 additional points on my way to Bast, unload the 8 tons of illicit goods there, do the tunnel runs, then head back to Bast to buy a bunch of bast snake oil and head back to the start. still finalizing the route and doing dry runs with cheap legal non-rare goods to help figure it out.

It's a tribute to all the unshielded Type-n ships destroyed by pirates over the years.

Nuk wanted to exclude the Type-10 from that award as well, but Tony wouldn't let him.

As it stands though, any run in a competitive ship like a Keelback will take the main Black Riband award, at least until Buski or furrycat turn up in something faster than a Cobra Mk IV.

PS: Sorry it took a couple of days replying, I've been busy away from the forums. I've added email notifications to my subscription to this thread, so I shouldn't miss any other posts. The race entry forms give me notifications anyway, so I'll never miss actual entries.

Incidentally, if you take a look at the last few pages of the rare commodities list thread, there are a couple of extra rares that are no longer suppressed - Anagippe Rush and Terra Mata Blood Bores - I've not played for a few weeks, so haven't checked their boom allocation or where they're legal/illegal, but all illegal rares are valid in this event.

If you visit either system and view the commodity in the market, the description will say where they're legal.

So this is an opportunity to optimise a route in a way even Fat Tony didn't see coming!

I'm mainly posting here to prevent the thread locking, as the challenge is still active.
I've not had much time to play Elite recently, but I'm hoping to get chance to update the commodities lists this week, with the illegal rares that were unlocked after the start of the rebooted event.

I'm also posting because I'm planning to make a run myself during my Christmas break, probably in either my Asp-X or my Python. Bruski's current record is an awesome Cobra Classic run, but should be easily beatable in an engineered ship, and I don't particularly want to challenge for the record in my own race.

At some point I am going to attempt this. I'm just trying to figure out what the heck ship to do it in.

Sadly, the ship I built for exactly this sort of run won't do - Joyeuse simply doesn't have the cargo capacity for it (I can get her up to 24 tons, but it requires giving up both my Guardian FSD Booster and my fuel scoop!)

Thanks Raiko - believe it or not this is still on my todo list so good-job keeping this open.

Do you think Q4 is going to affect this challenge much?

Originally I was hoping that Q4 would include improvement to smuggling and that this race would be obsolete.

I don't expect that the update will directly affect the event, I'll check that the two outposts are still present in the Beta if I get time to play this weekend.

During an earlier update (sometime since the Galaxy's End pub crawl) some evil dev added an exclusion zone around the Rahu outpost - which was quite a surprise when I first checked the Black Riband course. The danger at the other outpost is dependant on a triggered scenario with the Silver Comet ships appearing - if that disappears then the event is much easier.

The most likely disruption will be the BGS changes, as the race is quite dependant on some of the better supply stations being in boom when you make a run.

At some point I am going to attempt this. I'm just trying to figure out what the heck ship to do it in.

Sadly, the ship I built for exactly this sort of run won't do - Joyeuse simply doesn't have the cargo capacity for it (I can get her up to 24 tons, but it requires giving up both my Guardian FSD Booster and my fuel scoop!)

None of my other ships are well-suited to smuggling.

Yes, it's a bit of a harsh event for your favoured small ships. The large deliveries were necessary to stop the DBX being the undisputed 100% best ship for the event. I suspect that Kraits and Pythons are the best followed by the Asp-X and then the DBX, but I've not bothered optimising a route, so I'm not sure. A python is certainly the easiest ship to make a run in.

Joyeuse would work well running in the Bootlegger Express - You're only making one 8t delivery in that one, dropping 2t at an installation and then taking 8t of legal rares back to the start. So it works better for small ships, but it's also much less complex, which could be good or bad depending on how much complexity you enjoy.

Alternatively, I will keep track of the fastest runs by each ship type (like Drakhyr does for the A* challenge), and so you could just go for the a very fast time for a courier. You can visit each station more than once if you like - as long as you deliver 20t total to each station it's valid. Bruski's run was narcotics-free in an unengineered ship, so even making extra station visits, it shouldn't take as long in an engineered ship.

One additional thing to bear in mind is the dangers of the installations mentioned above in my reply to Alex. I would advise shields be fitted for this race. Joyeuse might well be fast enough to keep flying in and out of the exclusion zone without triggering the turrets and bounty though, and a point defence turret would probably be enough to stop Nuk's friends the Silver Comets.

I suspect that Kraits and Pythons are the best followed by the Asp-X and then the DBX, but I've not bothered optimising a route, so I'm not sure. A python is certainly the easiest ship to make a run in.

Scrub the above - I haven't downloaded this week's beta yet, but I've played around in beta.coriolis.io and (fittingly I think) the Krait Phantom appears to be the perfect ship for the Black Riband Rebooted. Although it's apparently a bit of a pig in SC.

Originally I was hoping that Q4 would include improvement to smuggling and that this race would be obsolete.

I don't expect that the update will directly affect the event, I'll check that the two outposts are still present in the Beta if I get time to play this weekend.

During an earlier update (sometime since the Galaxy's End pub crawl) some evil dev added an exclusion zone around the Rahu outpost - which was quite a surprise when I first checked the Black Riband course. The danger at the other outpost is dependant on a triggered scenario with the Silver Comet ships appearing - if that disappears then the event is much easier.

The most likely disruption will be the BGS changes, as the race is quite dependant on some of the better supply stations being in boom when you make a run.

Yes, it's a bit of a harsh event for your favoured small ships. The large deliveries were necessary to stop the DBX being the undisputed 100% best ship for the event. I suspect that Kraits and Pythons are the best followed by the Asp-X and then the DBX, but I've not bothered optimising a route, so I'm not sure. A python is certainly the easiest ship to make a run in.

Joyeuse would work well running in the Bootlegger Express - You're only making one 8t delivery in that one, dropping 2t at an installation and then taking 8t of legal rares back to the start. So it works better for small ships, but it's also much less complex, which could be good or bad depending on how much complexity you enjoy.

Alternatively, I will keep track of the fastest runs by each ship type (like Drakhyr does for the A* challenge), and so you could just go for the a very fast time for a courier. You can visit each station more than once if you like - as long as you deliver 20t total to each station it's valid. Bruski's run was narcotics-free in an unengineered ship, so even making extra station visits, it shouldn't take as long in an engineered ship.

One additional thing to bear in mind is the dangers of the installations mentioned above in my reply to Alex. I would advise shields be fitted for this race. Joyeuse might well be fast enough to keep flying in and out of the exclusion zone without triggering the turrets and bounty though, and a point defence turret would probably be enough to stop Nuk's friends the Silver Comets.

I always run shields on Joyeuse anyway... minimal ones (2D with Grade 5 enhanced low-power), but shields nonetheless - her thrusters are so touchy that landing her without taking hull damage is almost impossible if I don't use a shield, even when I'm not in a hurry and even with analogue thruster control. The only exception is for the A* Challenge, where docking is not so much a thing. I doubt she'd even need a point-defense turret, as she's faster (655 m/s military, 885 boost) than any missile I've yet to encounter. Of course, with a full cargo hold she loses some speed, but I think she's still fast enough to outrun missiles. I might have to test that at some point. It certainly helps that even a minimal shield generator on a Courier yields a pretty stout defense.

Of course, if I decide Joyeuse is not durable enough, I could always run it in her sister Durandal.

I'll look more closely at my options once Joyeuse's A* Challenge run is done.

I don't know what the boom spawn is for Terra Mater Blood Bores yet - it's likely to be 30t, but might get a boost due to the permit requirement. I'm also not sure about the legality in Zaonce - I forgot to check. They are legal in Independent Co-operatives, which normally means they'd also be legal in Alliance Co-operatives, so I'd be surprised if they're banned in Zaonce.

Note that in order to unsuppress the Master Chefs, FD moved their source system from Noti to Viracocha.

Although grouped as medicines, rather than legal-drugs, both Aganippe Rush and Terra Mater Blood Bores are classified as narcotics for the purposes of the Zammo McGuire Memorial Trophy.

The commodites list now notes exactly which commodities are classified as narcotics. The reintroduction of Master Chefs now means that good-guy smugglers who won't haul drugs can now carry a few slaves to go with their biological weapons and weaponised nanotech.